A Listener From the Past
by Luna Rosanna
Summary: What happens when Abby stumbles upon news about a favorite person from her past that makes her upset? And who is there to help her with her troubled mind?


Her look fixed on the icy layer shimmering in the sunlight on top of the pavement by her lab windows. Her mind buzzing with thoughts of regret and sadness.

Even though one might say the weather was beautiful for late February in Washington D.C., there were particularly gloomy clouds hanging over the roof of a lab that belonged to Abigail Sciuto.

It was early in the morning she arrived, as she had a hard time falling asleep and if there was something that soothes her, it was her work.

As the day went on, the absence of her music always playing in the background, as well as any sign of good mood was something that alerted the team she worked with every day.

First, it was Tim. He was sent down by their boss to get back the information of evidence found in a car of the dead Petty Officer. His persuading to tell him what was bothering her made her irritated even more. She said she was completely and utterly alright, and he (luckily for him) picked up on a fact she wanted to be left alone, let it go and went back to the bullpen.

As information spread like germs in the team Gibbs, a juicy one like a bad mood of their beloved forensic scientist already got to the ears of very special agent Tony DiNozzo. Teasing McGee he was better at handling her mood swings made McGee oddly furious, so he rather went down to the lab to give turning her mood around a chance himself.

As his humor was somewhat of a tactic he used around Abby, he thought he would give it a shot with a few jokes. To his surprise, it sure made her smile, but that was about it. There was something wicked going on in the Abbyland, and he was very determined to find out what it was. But he wasn't qualified to do it on his own.

"Boss, we got code goth," said Tony entering the bullpen. Gibbs made a face that gestured his confusion and made Tony continue.

"Abby is weird. Weirder than usual. Her lab is quiet she almost didn't even laugh at my jokes," said Tony, hand on his heart to show how much it hurt his ego.

Gibbs didn't say anything towards the Abby situation, rather barking an order to his team to update him about the case. He sighed, thinking about how to handle Abby and realizing that an upset scientist wouldn't help the case process anyway, and, therefore, there was no point in putting off a visit to the lab.

**XXX**

"Talk to me Abby," were the words he entered the lab with.

Making her jump, she started explaining crazy fast all the evidence details she was earlier supposed to tell McGee, making Gibbs not even understand what she was saying.

"Abby, slow down," he stopped her.

"No can do Gibbs, there is a lot we need to get through. I found some DNA evidence underneath the nails of the Officer, still running the tests. There were very little signs of defense though. He was killed while he was on his computer, but there was no blood on the actual computer. That can only mean one thing."

"The computer was swapped," he finished her sentence, which normally didn't bother her, but not this time. He saw how it made her facial expression change, but he didn't say a word.

"Yes, it was. The killer probably wanted something that was on the original one."

"Well yeah, I guess," she had been very calm, and not in a good way. Her words were coming out of her mouth as if somebody forced her to do it, her body language showing him she wanted to be left alone and her usual babbling didn't take place once.

"Something bothering you, Abby?" He asked her with a firm but a reassuring tone in his voice.

"No, nothing. I am fine, I just didn't get a good night's sleep. That's exactly what I said to those two and what I will tell you because that is the truth," responded Abby quickly with a snap.

"I got time, Abby. My gut is telling me it is more than just bad sleep," said Gibbs, his icy blue eyes finally meeting her usually sparking-with-joy green ones.

"Ah, your famous gut. It is always right, isn't it?" asked Abby, making Gibbs chuckle.

"I'm listening."

"Gibbs! It's not that easy. Actually, it's super easy. Honestly, it's probably even dumb."

She stopped and looked at him. His comforting look made her continue.

"Okay. So I was browsing the internet last night and I stumbled upon something very sad," said Abby.

"What was it, Abbs? Another video of how the farm animals are being treated poorly?" He asked.

"No, Gibbs! You forbade me from watching the videos so I stopped. It doesn't make them disappear you know!" she said, getting angrier for a second.

"I know Abby, but you watching all those videos isn't going to save them. It is going to make you sad and not focus on your job," he added and she rolled her eyes so hard she probably saw her eye's sclera, hoping he didn't notice.

"Anyway, so I was browsing through the website of the news from my hometown. Recently they upgraded to a website so it is easy for me to see what is going on. And it was all fine until I stumbled upon this article," she said, making her way to her computer and pulling up a website article. He didn't have his reading glasses, so the only thing he could read was the headline: **A beloved Spanish teacher retires**, with a picture attached showing an older woman, holding a bouquet, surrounded by students.

"Okay, but what is so sad about this? She doesn't seem sad to me Abby."

"It's not the article. I mean not totally. See this woman?" she pointed to the older woman in the picture, "That is my Spanish teacher from high school, Mrs. Suzanne Hook. She was my favorite teacher ever. I used to talk to her outside of the classes a lot, about everything. The things I liked, mutual interests, future, family, everything I had on my mind! The good and bad. She always listened to my ramblings. I would even say she enjoyed them at times. She was one of the few people who supported my dream of becoming a forensic scientist. She was also Luca's teacher and helped him so much with problems he had with classmates. She is an amazing human being."

"Okay Abby, so that's what made you so sad, her retirement?" asked Gibbs, as he didn't see where she was going with this.

"No. Actually, yes. But no. What really made me sad Gibbs is that I never got to say goodbye to her," she replied, this time, a few lonely tears making their way down her pale cheeks.

Not saying anything, his silence made her go on.

"During my last day of high school, we had this whole graduating ceremony. I made her a gift, a heart that said _'Maybe I will forget something you taught me, but I will never forget you'_ bought flowers and I wanted to go to her and say thanks for all of the things she did for me. But after the celebration was over, I rushed to find her and she was gone already. So I left the gifts with a different teacher with a message to give it to her by Monday."

He nodded, showing her she can continue.

"And then I never heard back from her. I was hoping she would write me an email or something. Or a letter. Or say something to Luca, he was still going to the school you know, I finished earlier. But nothing. I never heard a word from her. And I was so mad at her, I never went to see her again. It hurt me, Gibbs, that she never cared enough to tell me or write me something. Anything. And I always promised myself that one day I would go to school and say hi to her and finally say my goodbye and thanks. But I never did. While I still could, I was too stubborn, and then I got busy with life. And this article just made me realized that I was stubborn and busy for way too long," as Abby finished her story, she was starting to cry.

"Abbs… it's not like she's gone or anything. She probably never got your gifts, or she was busy. You can still visit her if you want. I bet she'll remember you. You must have been one of the brightest students she had during her career," said Gibbs, making her smile.

"I don't know Gibbs, I think it would be weird after all those years. It just made me realize how stubborn I can be. I could have just simply gone in while I was still there or call or something. But I didn't. Why do I have to be like this?"

"Being stubborn doesn't make you a bad person. A little challenging at times? Maybe. But you are an amazing person. Don't ever doubt that. Why don't you give her a call? I can have McGee searching for her cell any minute."

"Thanks, Gibbs, for always listening. You are like the best listener ever! Even better than Mrs. Hook," she threw herself around him, giving him one of her bone-crushing hugs.

"Anytime Abby," he kissed her cheek, making his way back to his office.

"And Gibbs? Can you tell McGee to find her number?" called Abby after Gibbs.

"He's already on it Abbs," he replied, making her smirk.

_He always knew exactly what she needed.  
A listener._


End file.
